“I hope I don't put on too much weight.”  This is the prayer, often intimate and personal, of almost all expecting mothers, worried about not being “who they were” at the end of pregnancy.  A fear that should be kept in mind, also for the well-being of the child, but it mustn’t become an obsession.  It is in fact necessary to consider that the increase in weight during pregnancy is entirely normal and responds to precise physiological mechanisms.

To start with, the weight of the foetus is what moves the needle on the scales as it can reach over three kilos at the end of the nine months.  To this weight, you have to consider the weight of the placenta, the amniotic liquid, the uterus and, in proportion to the increase in volume, also the breasts.  Just by adding these factors it is normal to reach at least five or six kilos more.  But that is not everything.  During pregnancy the organism of a woman tends to lower its metabolism, and transform into fat, most of the calories that are consumed.  In this way, the body accumulates a natural reserve of energy:  an ancestral mechanism, essential to protect the life of mother and child from a possible - and today unlikely - lack of food and nourishment.  This is why women put on weight during the pregnancy even if they are apparently not eating more food or more calories than before.

The increase in weight is not constant:  the motto that in pregnancy “you put on one kilo a month” is simply a saying.  In the first two or three months when the placenta and foetus weigh a few grams it is possible for mothers not to put on any weight at all.  Certain women, on the contrary, even lose some kilos, almost always because of the nausea.  The increase in weight begins to show from the fourth month onwards and more so during the last two months of pregnancy, when some future mothers notice an increase of four or five kilos in a couple of weeks.

The increase in weight, in any case, should be checked monthly with the gynaecologist, because the extra kilos one can grant oneself, differs from woman to woman.  Those who start rather underweight can theoretically put on 17-18 kilos, whilst women who are already plump may have to check their diets so as not to put on more than 6 or 7 kilos.  Generally speaking, those who start from a normal weight can consider “inevitable” an increase in weight of between nine and twelve kilos.  In any case, it is not recommended for a pregnant woman to start a diet on her own:  there is the risk, in fact, of the future mom exposing herself and the baby to a lack of nourishments which are essential during the pregnancy.  The gynaecologist will provide advice in terms of the correct foods and the correct quantities of food to eat.

Pregnant women can usually eat what they prefer during the pregnancy (paying attention to avoid raw meats and washing vegetables well to avoid toxoplasmosis), but it is recommended to eliminate alcohol and not to have too many fatty and sweet foods.